Who will tell the stories of those who refused to be slaves? The Atlantic slave trade transported millions of humans from the coasts of West Africa into the New World, stripping them of their dignity, freedom, language and culture. The accepted notion is that these Blacks willingly submitted to the chattel slave system, accepting their new lot in life. When one scours the records, a different story emerges. Black Rebellion chronicles the active resistance of Africans in the New World against their oppressors. These firsthand accounts reveal much that has been neglected in the traditional telling of history. Black Rebellion is a collection of historical literature documenting major slave revolts and uprisings throughout the Americas, written primarily by contemporaries and eyewitnesses. It contains accounts of Nat Turner's Revolt, Gabriel Prosser's Rebellion, Denmark Vesey's Conspiracy, the Stono Rebellion, the Haitian Revolution, and the Maroon Wars of Jamaica and Surinam, as well as a timeline of Western slavery and revolt. This collection is further illuminated by an introduction by Dr. Sujan Dass. Other essays address why most slave revolts were betrayed by fellow slaves, the role of music in rebellion, and resistance to slavery among African leaders. Contains the full text of T. W. Higginson s Black Rebellion: Five Slave Revolts (1889), the full text of Joshua Coffin s An Account of Some of the Principal Slave Insurrections (1860), excerpts from Marcus Rainsford s An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti (1805), excerpts from William Wells Brown s The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements (1863), and other works.

Black Rebellion: Eyewitness Accounts of Major Slave Revolts

Politics & Social Sciences

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Sujan Dass

Joshua Coffin

William Wells Brown

Marcus Rainford

Social Sciences

Two Horizons Press

Short excerpt: It was indeed a heart-rending scene to witness the lamentations of these slaves, all of whom had grown up together on the old homestead of Mr. Graves…

Clotelle: a Tale of the Southern States (Large Print Edition)

Literature & Fiction

BiblioBazaar

William Wells Brown (November 6, 1814 -; November 6, 1884) was a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into slavery in the Southern United States, Brown escaped to the North, where he worked for abolitionist causes and was a prolific writer. Brown was a pioneer in several different literary genres, including travel writing, fiction, and drama, and wrote what is considered to be the first novel by an African American. An almost exact contemporary of Frederick Douglass, Wells Brown was overshadowed by Douglass and the two feuded publicly. William Wells Brown was born into slavery in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Elizabeth, was owned by a Dr. Young and had seven children, all with different fathers. (In addition to Brown, her children were Solomon, Leander, Benjamin, Joseph, Milford, and Elizabeth.) Brown's father was George Higgins, a white plantation owner and cousin of the owner of the plantation where Brown was born. Even though Young promised Higgins never to sell the boy, he was sold multiple times before he was twenty years old.

Narrative of William W. Brown

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

A well-known nineteenth-century abolitionist and former slave, William Wells Brown was a prolific writer and lecturer who captivated audiences with readings of his drama The Escape; or, a Leap for Freedom (1858). The first published play by an African American writer, The Escape explored the complexities of American culture at a time when tensions between North and South were about to explode into the Civil War. This new volume presents the first-edition text of Brown’s play and features an extensive introduction that establishes the work’s continuing significance. The Escape centers on the attempted sexual violation of a slave and involves many characters of mixed race, through which Brown commented on such themes as moral decay, white racism, and black self-determination. Rich in action and faithful in dialect, it raises issues relating not only to race but also to gender by including concepts of black and white masculinity and the culture of southern white and enslaved women. It portrays a world in which slavery provided a convenient means of distinguishing between the white North and the white South, allowing northerners to express moral sentiments without recognizing or addressing the racial prejudice pervasive among whites in both regions. John Ernest’s introductory essay balances the play's historical and literary contexts, including information on Brown and his career, as well as on slavery, abolitionism, and sectional politics. It also discusses the legends and realities of the Underground Railroad, examines the role of antebellum performance art—including blackface minstrelsy and stage versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin—in the construction of race and national identity, and provides an introduction to theories of identity as performance. A century and a half after its initial appearance, The Escape remains essential reading for students of African American literature. Ernest's keen analysis of this classic play will enrich readers’ appreciation of both the drama itself and the era in which it appeared.

The Escape; or, A Leap For Freedom: A Drama in Five Acts

Dramas & Plays

University of Tennessee Press

William Wells Brown (November 6, 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into slavery in the Southern United States, Brown escaped to the North, where he worked for abolitionist causes and was a prolific writer. Brown was a pioneer in several different literary genres, including travel writing, fiction, and drama, and wrote what is considered to be the first novel by an African American. An almost exact contemporary of Frederick Douglass, Wells Brown was overshadowed by Douglass and the two feuded publicly. William Wells Brown was born into slavery in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Elizabeth, was owned by a Dr. Young and had seven children, all with different fathers. (In addition to Brown, her children were Solomon, Leander, Benjamin, Joseph, Milford, and Elizabeth.) Brown's father was George Higgins, a white plantation owner and cousin of the owner of the plantation where Brown was born. Even though Young promised Higgins never to sell the boy, he was sold multiple times before he was twenty years old. Brown spent the majority of his youth in St. Louis. His masters hired him out to work on the Missouri River, then a major thoroughfare for the slave trade. He made several attempts to escape, and on New Year's Day of 1834, he successfully slipped away from a steamboat at a dock in Cincinnati, Ohio. He adopted the name of a Quaker friend of his, who had helped him after his escape by providing him with food, clothes and some money. Shortly after gaining his freedom, he met and married Elizabeth Schooner, a free African-American woman, from whom he separated and later divorced, causing a minor scandal. Together they had three daughters. From 1836 to about 1845, Brown made his home in Buffalo, New York, where he served as a conductor for the Underground Railroad and as a steam boatman on Lake Erie, a position he used to ferry escaped slaves to freedom in Canada. There Brown became active in the abolitionist movement by joining several anti-slavery societies and the Negro Convention Movement.

Narrative of William W Brown, a Fugitive Slave

Cedar Lake Publications

Negro in the American Rebellion

Lushena Books

Clotel: or The President's Daughter

Simon&Brown

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Books by William Wells Brown